NEW ORLEANS — When college football’s powerbrokers envisioned a 13-member committee choosing a four-team College Football Playoff field, they did so because they wanted subjectivity in the process. They wanted the freedom to choose what they saw as the four best teams, and not necessarily be restrained to the four most deserving, based on résumés to date.

That, in essence, is why Alabama got here in the first place without winning its conference or even its division, and with a lack of truly impressive regular-season victories.

What the Crimson Tide did Monday night — a vintage Alabama beatdown, one that started in the trenches and expanded out — showed not just that they belonged in this field, but that a Playoff without them in it would not have been able to justly crown college football’s champion.

The All-American’s college football bowl guide

“We have a heck of a program, and that’s shown year in and year out,” Alabama...

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